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That aircraft surely must have been the best all round plane in ww2. It could carry the same weight of bombs as a B-17.

Yes and no.
While the Mossie could carry around the same amount of bombs to long distance targets like Berlin as the B-17 (approx 4,000Ib), on shorter range missions the B-17 could carry far more (up to 17,500Ib, from memory)

. Also known as the "Tse Tse Fly," this particular model was armed with four 0.303-inch caliber machine guns and a single 57-mm cannon in the nose. The 57-mm cannon was based on a standard Army light artillery piece called the 6-pounder but modified with a Molins automatic loader. The entire system weighed about 1,800 lb (815 kg). The aircraft carried 25 rounds of ammunition, weighing 7 lb (3.2 kg) each, and the automatic loader could fire the entire magazine in just 20 seconds.

Mosquito FB.XVIII armed with its 57-mm cannon

The aircraft was originally designed as an anti-tank weapon, but was instead used for anti-shipping and anti-submarine duties as well as to attack shore installations. However, rockets were found to be better suited to the task, so the cannon was later supplemented by an armament of two 500-lb bombs or eight 60-lb rockets. Only 27 examples were built, the first seeing action in October of 1943.

Yes and no.
While the Mossie could carry around the same amount of bombs to long distance targets like Berlin as the B-17 (approx 4,000Ib), on shorter range missions the B-17 could carry far more (up to 17,500Ib, from memory)

Yes you are right, but still, what an aircraft eh. I bet when you got posted to the Mossie in Bomber Command in 1943 you heaved a sight of relief. Their casualty rates were very low compared to the heavies.

could carry the same wheight with a b-17 ? Jesus Christ !!!!!!!!! yeah but the same wheight does not mean that it carried the same number of bombs . right ?
i mean was it able to achieve the same damage in the enemies ?

could carry the same wheight with a b-17 ? Jesus Christ !!!!!!!!! yeah but the same wheight does not mean that it carried the same number of bombs . right ?
i mean was it able to achieve the same damage in the enemies ?

It has nothing to do with quantity.
Read the previous post...

while the Mossie could carry around the same amount of bombs to long distance targets like Berlin as the B-17 (approx 4,000Ib), on shorter range missions the B-17 could carry far more (up to 17,500Ib, from memory)

The point is, that the Mossie's, could go low level, so that right at the first glimmer of dawn, they would crush a Gestapo castle somewhere in occupied Europe, no other bombers could do this, although the A-20s could have trained with the mossies, and become a similar force...

But the mossie's real 'magic' was it's versatility, I mean, a night figher par exellence, a night bomber, a day fighter bomber, a sea attack plane (mainly against coastal shipping off the Norwegian coastline), a recce plane including long distance weather recon, a post ferry plane over occupied Europe to Sweden and never catched by the alerted FW-190s from Denmark!

Also some anti sub patrolling... I mean this thing did it all! And what was the amazing thing was that when it was designed, Britain was very much in it's toughest moments during 'the bliz', sometime in late 1940, and they realized that aluminium would be hard to come by, so they designed the whole planes frame from wood, and covered it with canvas treated with emulsion for a tough end result, and only the weapons, some of the internal rigging, cockpit were metal... This also meant, that the early radars in use back then had a harder time fixing it, as there was so little metal!

I love the Mosquito! Just it's look, and ofcourse the stories of all the amazing things that this one plane could do! And to think that it almost never made it through the armaments board!

My favourite if really pressed for an answer is the Intruder night fighter model, they used to go some miles aside the bomber stream on a 'big night', raf raid... As the Lufwaffe had developed a system where each nighfighter (usually based onto a Me 110 or JU-88, with those ugly antenna's in the front of it), the German plane would circle in it's box, waiting for orders from a strong ground radar, then it would be vectored into it's own radars range, and fix the plane, fly under it, and use the upward tilted 20 or 30mm MG's, with a mixture of armour pearcing and explosive shells, and let rip! about 80% of the Wellingtons, Halifaxes, Stirlings and mostly Lancasters never saw the enemy plane that shot them down!

But the Brit's wouldnt just bend over and take it! The formed special intruder squadrons from Mosquito's and Beaufighters with a good radar in the nose (unexposed on the Brit models), and with a fiew 20mm cannons, they would use the german ground to air-air to ground traffic to fix the enemy plane, or just go free hunting, anyway the end product was that the German plane all consentrating on getting the next Brit bomber, usually never realized that behind and slightly below was a Mosquito intruder! They just shot them down as daytime planes, they didnt have a slanted mg, but they did fire from very close...

The Germans didnt seem to be very alerted to the intruders , they probably thought that most of the shot down night fighters were shot down by RAF bombers, as the USAAF daytime bombers did account for an ever increasing ammount of daytime Me-109s and FW-190s!

I do not know how many german night fighters the Intruders did get all in all, but it's for shure that it must of been in the hundreds, and in a totally different kind of air war, where most of the pilots who scored, went on to score tens of RAF bombers, the intruders must have saved hundreds of bomber command planes from a hellish spin in flames, where you were very, very lucky if you bailed out alive!

Again, one part of ww2 that isnt that known...

Any info on the intruders would be welcome!

I put pics of Mossies, and a couple of other planes... Hope U like 'em!

Re: Mosquito with 57 mm autocannon.

Re: Mosquito with 57 mm autocannon.

My next door neighbour works for a company that is making a replica of a Mossie for an Australian. They have had great difficulty in finding suitable original plans for the project. I'll try and get some photos to put on site.
Jim

Re: Mosquito with 57 mm autocannon.

Originally Posted by Jagdpanther

the cannon probably slowed down the plane when it was fired

And? ... Let's not forget the combat parameters here. Airspeed when aiming a heavy weapon against a ground target, should be a lot lower than when facing an airborne opponent. I don't think the Mosquito was very often drawn into a dogfight - pilots generally used its high speed to evade pursuit.